Printable

Here is an activity I like to do on the first and last day of Kindergarten. I have the kids draw a self-portrait and write their name then I collect them and keep them until the last day of school. They've forgotten about it by then...I have them do their self-portrait and write their name again then I pass out the one from the first day of school. They love it! They think it is so funny how 'weird' they used to write their name or how they didn't put arms on their body...

This is Me

Some Organization

Here are some simple and basic ways I organize my classroom. As I'm working in there more I will post how I do centers, lesson plan book, etc. For now here are some basics. 

Each child has their own tub which I label with a laminated cutout (frog or bee) and put their name on it. They keep their markers, unfinished work, spaceman (for writing), number tiles for tiling packets and some of their readers from guided reading. The four white boxes on the top row are extra supplies. If we are in the middle of something and Tyler can't find a pink crayon, he can just go over to the white box and get one. 

Scissors, crayons, pencils, glue. 

Each table has a 'work bucket'. They are filled with glue, scissors and crayons. I don't have these filled yet because I haven't collected supplies from the kids yet. I do community supplies where each table has their own set of supplies. I allow the kids to keep their markers in their tub but other than that we share everything. I've tried doing supplies a few different ways. Because we have tables and not desks, there isn't a good storage place for personal supplies. One year I did let the kids keep their supplies in their tub but it was way too much getting up and down and if someone lost a red crayon I was constantly replacing lost supplies. I also have these skinny orange baskets I call pencil baskets. Each table has their own basket filled with 8 or so pencils.

I'm a little late on the Target posts. Everyone has posted the great deals they got at the Target dollar spot. Here are some simple matching games which I'm keeping in these cute Dr. Seuss bags. I made about 10 of them. I like how I can have the kids grab a game and take it to a quiet area of the room to play. Also good for a center, very portable. I have lots of parent volunteers and this year I  have 4 non-English speaking students. So I will have my parent volunteers use these games to play with some of those students.

Kind of a wonky picture of my room, but I have 4 tables of 4 plus 1 trapezoid shaped table and a round table. One year I had 16 kids which was perfect....4 tables of 4 but this year I'm going to have 22 so I will need the extra tables. 

Math Mat

http://www.scribd.com/doc/58809158/Pig-Math-Mat

Simple Shape Printable

Simple shape printable for beginning of the year.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/58469505/Shape-Printable

Post # 50! Some of my favorite teacher things....

Love all of her stuff!

Love Love Love new markers for MY use only!

Same w/ the crayons. I don't share these w/ the kids. 

I have a small bucket filled w/ sharpies of various colors. I love being able to pick one from many to write things ...mostly writing on laminated things.

Love most everything at Lakeshore Learning. But they are expensive!

Cubbies for each of my kids. Very helpful with keeping work, supplies and half finished projects organized.

This aisle at a Target, IKEA, Wal-Mart, Container Store, etc. You get the idea.

Kindergartners love play doh. I use play doh a lot for fine motor work, making letters, numbers and words, etc. 

Any books by Lizzie Rockwell.

Any books by Gail Gibbons.

I love this line of organizational items called "Hot Chocolate". I have notebooks, calendars, binders, etc.

A must to get me through the day!

Bugs!

Bug stamps from Oriental Trading. I have the kids use them to make patterns.

Counting by 10's on insect cutouts and writing the number words.

Using pattern block shapes to make insect artwork.

This is a really good book for teaching adjectives. 

Printable from Mrs. Lee. 

Idea from Mrs. Lee. Adding 3 numbers together.

Adding together 4 dice and writing on beehives. Printable from makinglearningfun.com

From makinglearningfun.com. Filling in a 100's honeycomb chart.

Our butterflies hatched! All five made it. The red cotton balls are sugar water dyed with red food coloring for nectar. The other reddish spots are not blood. They are from the butterfly's body, it is actually coloring for their wings. They pump the fluid from their middle section into their wings for coloring. Some of the coloring seeps out.

Journal entry from our Butterfly Observation Journal. Another student wrote  (phonetically),  " I see the butterfly sip nectar using it's proboscis". YES!! Success!

From makinglearningfun.com

Kids roll the dice, write the numeral then color the leaf the appropriate color.

This is a good one for the end of the year when you are just about out of ideas. Give the kids 2 dot dice, have them roll, add the dots together then write. After their grid is filled out have them color the numbers according to a color key (see below). They actually loved this!

Letting our butterflies go.

Observing the nectar, wing fluid and cocoons.